When I had a 2 hour layover in ORD, I walked around most of it and I saw, no more than three UA crafts with the new livery and a few more CRJ's in new colors, and the rest of them, and there were a lot, were in Grey. How many UA crafts have been repainted?

"Why does a slight tax increase cost you $200 and a substantial tax cut save you 30 cents?"

Repainting is done when the planes go in for their heavy maintenance / "D" checks, since the paint has to be stripped off at that time, anyway, so it just depends on how many planes need those checks. I'm guessing it's in the low double-digit percentages by now.

I'm really not sure where that 'urban legend' started, but UA's paint schedule has nothing to do with heavy MM checks....very few are being painted during the summer months due to heavy schedule demand...

I've been told the planes need to have their paint stripped during those checks (to perform fuselage corrosion and fatigue examinations) so it makes the most sense to paint them then, rather then send them in to be stripped and painted, then re-stripped and re-painted again for their checks...

Also, as you note, UA is using their planes pretty heavily and while I belive they can be painted in a day or two, pulling them out of service (especially the widebodies) just to paint them probably puts a strain on the schedule.

I remember when UA went from white with orange, red, and blue stripes to the gray and blue scheme, the plan was to repaint the fleet in 3 years. I think UA pretty much stuck to that schedule.

The new UA scheme came out in early 2004, so one would assume, if it followed the old schedule, that UA would be 2/3rds of the way through. Any time I'm at ORD, it looks as barely 25% of the planes are in the new livery.

How long is UA planning to take to completely repaint its mainline fleet?

I live in Chicago and it seems (this is just my impression, not fact) that the Express fleet is adopting the colors much quicker than the mainline birds. On my last few trips it seems like more than half of the UAX aircraft at Terminal 2 have been wearing the new scheme. And of course all the E190s carry the new colors.

Mainline seems to be more hit or miss - there's a fair number of 737s in the new scheme, but it's tough to find an A320. United's paint-them-as-they-come-up-for-maintenance plan makes the most sense, but I'm surprised they didn't quickly repaint their 777s and 747s, since those are the flagships.

I've only flown on one newly painted mainline plane, and have noticed that the painting process is slow. However a lot of 737s now have the new livery.

You'll notice that much of the United Express fleet has been repainted, especially in ORD. This is because most of the UAX planes are very new or at least new to United. UA dumped two of its larger express operators with Atlantic Coast and Air Wisconsin gone, so new planes came online with TransStates, Mesa, Chautauqua, Republic and Skywest. These planes all had the new livery of course, so terminal two is nice and bright.

If you have never designed an airplane part before, let the real designers do the work!

Quoting Stitch (Reply 9):Quoting United767 (Reply 5):
Last I was told at work the airline was looking at 5+ years for completion of all aircraft in new colors.

And in 5 years time they will think of yet another new livery....

Actually that sounds almost right. I think United still had planes in the Friendship orange, red blue livery up until 1999. This new livery was started in 2004, so therefore, United had a single coherent livery on its entire fleet for only five years. The grey livery first entered the fleet in 1993 IIRC. So therefore, we should expect 6 years for the full transition, which means the fleet will be painted by 2010. And we can then expect a new livery in 2015, which will be about the time when UA finally starts getting new planes again. (that was a joke)

If you have never designed an airplane part before, let the real designers do the work!

I live in the suburbs of Chicago and work under the Rwy 22R landing path. I see the 767s and 777s the most in the new colors. I sat under Rwy 4R for about three hours about two months ago and I was lucky to see 3 or 4 mainline in the new colors. The Rjs seem to be more like 75% painted in my opinion.

I distinctly remember flying in a United 727-200 from CLE to LGA with the old color scheme in 1978. That was four year after the new paint scheme was introduced which featured the Saul Bass logo (which is still present today, albeit in a new version). That 727-200 must have been one of the last to be re-painted. An early 727-200 model that had a small emergency exit just forward of the wing.

Just an interesting point. We had 2 new livery 772s on Tuesday at NGO. SFO-NGO arrived 40 minutes early and passed the NGO-SFO flight on the taxi. It was quite the sight. Too bad I was at the opposite end of the observation and couldn't get a picture.

Quoting Jsnww81 (Reply 6):I live in Chicago and it seems (this is just my impression, not fact) that the Express fleet is adopting the colors much quicker than the mainline birds.

you're right. but this is partially because the express fleet is much newer, therefore, when UA received a new express jet, it will automatically be in the new colors. also, those planes take a lot less time to paint, obviously. but i've been noticing that for a while now.

Quoting United767 (Reply 16):Sheez....I sure hope not! The planes come in with old mainline grey with dark blue mismtched with "new" blue on the engine and nose cones on the airbuses. Looks pretty crappy matched like that IMO.

U N I T E D A I R L I N E S its time to fly!

I really like the existing gray and blue livery of UA.....can't imagine why they opted for this new livery....